Mabel Haunted
by ToothPasteCanyon
Summary: Dipper was killed in Weirdmaggeddon. Of course Mabel's upset about it, but it's been a year and she's been able to move on. When she returns to Gravity Falls next summer, however, a series of odd occurrences lead her to believe her brother isn't as gone as she thought he was.
1. Chapter 1

_"Eenie, meenie, miney, YOU!" Next to Mabel in Bill's hand, Dipper suddenly slumped over motionless._

 _"Dipper?" Mabel gave her brother's shoulder a shake, faintly hearing her Grunkle Ford shouting something. There was no response. "Dipper, wake up!"_

 _Suddenly the hand that was holding the twins opened and the two fell to the floor. Heart pounding in her chest, Mabel ran to her brother's body, shaking him, calling his name…_

 _There was no response._

* * *

Mabel woke up with a jolt, looking around her in sudden panic before gradually readjusting to her surroundings. She was on a bus. The girl felt her luggage and reached down to pet a sleeping Waddles sitting on the floor by her feet; everything was there, safe.

She'd long stopped having the distinct feeling someone was missing wherever she went, but that dream had evoked some memories.

"Coming up to Gravity Falls, Oregon!" So did this particular destination. But despite these niggling feelings, she couldn't help but break into a beaming smile at the sight of the people waving at her from the bus stop.

Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford, Soos and Wendy; these people were the reason she'd come back for another summer! That was why as soon as the bus stopped she dashed to the door and squeezed through it.

"Kid!" Mabel charged towards her Grunkle Stan first, tackling the old man with a huge hug around his neck. Stan was laughing, hugging her back just as tightly. "Happy to see you too, knucklehead! Wow, you've grown tall! And a little heavier - ow, ow, three seconds in and you're already killing my back!"

Mabel let go, looking at Stan and giggling. The old man raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny? Have I spilt something on me or something?"

"You're wearing my goodbye sweater, Grunkle Stan!"

"Yeah, so?" Stan scratched his head. "Oh, I suppose it's not goodbye, but… it seemed appropriate, you know? It's not like I'm wearing it any other day-"

"Oh, come on Stanley." Ford stepped forward to give his brother a light punch. "Your great uncle has been wearing that any chance he gets. Says it reminds him of you."

"No, I haven't! We've just been going to, you know, some cold places. And it's not like you ever knitted me any other sweaters than this one."

Mabel's eyes shone. "Grunkle Stan, I will knit you so many sweaters this summer."

"Yeah?" Stan ruffled his great niece's hair. "Well, knit some for Ford too, some real nerdy ones. He wears that red one so much you'd think he doesn't have anything else."

"Yo Mabel," Mabel felt somebody tap her shoulder, and she turned to see Wendy and Soos just behind her. "You promised hugs when you last wrote us, and we're here to collect."

Mabel pulled the two into a group hug. "Hugs delivered!"

"Hambone, you ready for the best summer of your life?"

"Honestly?" Mabel scratched the back of her head. "I think I'm just happy to see you guys again. I missed you all so much!"

Before anybody could respond there was a call from the bus. "Hey, miss, you left your luggage in here! And this pig…"

"I got it!" Stan quickly slipped into the bus, and a second later he walked out with all the luggage and Waddles trailing behind him.

"Hey, Waddles!" Wendy grinned and picked up the pig. "Nice to see you as well. How were you able to get him on the bus?"

Mabel looked over to Stan, who was handing a few green notes to the bus driver. "Grunkle Stan called ahead."

"Alright!" Ford spoke as soon as the bus drove off. "To the car, everyone!"

"To the car!" Stan shifted some of the luggage off of his back. "Sheesh, what did you pack in here? A bowling alley?"

"I can take something, Grunkle Stan." Mabel dashed over and picked up the bag, noting it was blue, cylindrical and had 'PIEDMONT' stitched to the side. Though she'd covered it in stickers, she remembered it used to be Dipper's bag. Her heart dipped for a moment before she pushed it out of her mind; not here.

Mabel pointed forwards. "To the car! Haha, repeating stuff is fun."

The car ride was filled with tales from Stan and Ford's adventures out on the Stan-O-War. Some of them, like Ford's tale of the tower of water held up by a magical blue gemstone, were described with such scientific jargon it was hard to follow at times. Some of them, like Stan's account of the time he punched a giant squid in the face, had to be at least a little embellished.

All of them sounded amazing.

"Wow, Mr Pineses." Soos' eyes were wide. "That all sounds so cool!"

"What can I say? It was some nice quality time with my brother!" Stan playfully punched Ford's shoulder, then turned around in his seat to grin at Mabel. "And I'm sure we'll have even more amazing adventures this summer with you, pumpkin!"

Mabel laughed lightly, eyes darting to the side. "Haha, I think I'm still all adventured out, you know, from everything that happened last summer…"

She trailed off as she realized the car had gone silent. Stan turned back to the front. "Y-yeah, kid, fair enough."

"I mean," Mabel stretched a smile. "All those failed summer romances and stuff! Blarg, those were real awful adventures. I won't be doing any of that this year!"

Wendy laughed. "Oh, yeah, those were a bust. But we can do so much other fun stuff; this summer's gonna be awesome!"

"I bet!" Mabel gasped as they started pulling up to the Mystery Shack, pressing her face to the side. "Oh my gosh, the Mystery Shack! I haven't seen you in forever."

Stan smiled."Welcome home, kid."

* * *

 **Updated 10/10/16**


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as the car stopped, Mabel dashed over to the Shack and threw open the door. There was the gift shop, filled with a bunch of startled customers.

"Mystery Shack, I'm back!" The girl shouted, oblivious to several odd looks directed her way. Soos quickly caught up.

"Nothing to see here, dudes! This is just my old boss' great niece."

Everyone continued to stare.

Waddles wandered up next to Soos, and the man quickly picked him up. "And she's brought this cute pig, everyone! Five, no, ten bucks a photo!"

With a shout, all the tourists flocked to Soos, waving dollar bills in the air. Mabel raised her eyebrows, impressed.

"Wow, Soos! You're really good at this."

"I learned from the best." Mabel watched as Wendy ran past her and and started collecting money. "Go put your stuff in your room, Hambone! Wendy and I got this."

Mabel slipped past the gift shop and opened the door into the house part. She started running up the stairs, but stopped when she heard Stan call out for her to wait.

"Hey, kid," Stan, who was carrying all of Mabel's luggage, set it down at the base of the stairs. "My brother and I thought you'd like a different room this time round. Come on, I'll show you!"

The old man led Mabel through the house to a fancier door with little gold designs around it. She recognized it immediately. "Grunkle Ford's room? Last time it was all creepy and stuff with the carpet."

"Aah, we touched it up a bit. Look!" He opened the door to a very different room than Mabel was expecting. The first thing she noticed was the fluffy pink carpet, then her eyes wandered to the bright, clean bed with a bedside light and the desk with a spinny chair and a basket for Waddles next to it. Everything was lit with a warm evening light from the window.

"Wow." Mabel blinked. "G-Grunkle Stan, this is amazing!"

"It was Wendy's idea. Turns out when you remove some of Poindexter's nerd stuff, it's actually a pretty nice room!" He watched with a smile as his great niece jumped onto the carpet and started making snow angel shapes in it.

"So soft!" She sat up, and giggled as her hair fluffed up. "And static-y! But this won't switch bodes or anything, will it?"

Stan chuckled. "My brother said it won't, so I think we're safe there. Now let's go get your bags!"

"Wait!" Mabel took out a small digital camera. "I gotta take a first summer picture with this awesome room and you!" She put an arm around Stan, and turned the camera lens around to point at them. She pressed it until she heard a click, then turned it back to look at the image. "It's a little off centre."

"Ehh, it looks fine." Grunkle Stan offered a hand. " _Now_ let's go get your bags, pumpkin."

Mabel took her grunkle's hand, bouncing around in excitement. "Thank you guys so much! I can already tell this is gonna be the best summer ever!"

"Haha, I hope so. Would make it worth all those emails your folks sent me just to let you stay here again."

"Oh, haha…" Mabel's smile dropped. "Sorry."

"Nothing to say sorry for, kid." The old man stopped right by the stairs and kneeled down to look his great niece straight in the eyes. "And you know if you want to talk about… you know, you can always come to your Grunkle Stan, okay?"

"Yeah." Mabel rubbed the back of her head. "Thanks."

Grunkle Stan's face creased in a gentle smile, then he abruptly stood up. "Right, ahem. So let's go get those bags- huh?"

The bags were gone.

"Hey, Stanford!" The old man shouted. "Where'd you put Mabel's stuff?"

Stanford popped his head out of the living room. "What? I didn't move anything. Was it Soos or Wendy?"

Mabel opened the door to the gift shop, where she saw the two and Waddles still surrounded by a crowd; they were getting quite the mileage out of that pig. "Nope, they're still with the tourists."

Stan frowned. "Well, it wasn't a ghost who moved it!" He tapped his chin. "I bet I know where it is. Wait here one second, Mabel."

Mabel watched as her great uncle marched up the steps and came back down with her luggage and a massive scowl. "Ugh, I knew somebody moved it to the Twin Room. I thought we briefed everyone on this!"

Ford shrugged.

"Anyway kid, let's bring this stuff to your new room." Stan stumbled back over to the room and set everything down. "There! So you wanna do some unpacking? We'll call you for dinner."

"Sounds great!" Mabel grinned and gave Stan a hug. "Thanks for everything, Grunkle Stan!"

"It's no problem, kid. We're glad to have you back." Stan waved as he gently closed the door, leaving Mabel to her own devices.

With a happy grin, she opened a bag and started to unpack. The girl started with a big pink backpack full of clothes first, and before long she was already at the last one, Dipper's old blue bag.

Mabel sighed, unzipping it and taking out a new scrapbook she bought recently. "A whole summer in Gravity Falls without you, Dipper." She walked over to her desk and gently laid the scrapbook down on the wood. "It's going to be really different, and not in a good way."

Mabel paused, opening to the first page. "Well, it's not all bad. Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford are getting along, there's probably tons of mysteries you'd've loved to solve, and this time round we won't have stupid Bill or Gideon to worry about!" She took out her camera and printed the image of her and Stan, and stuck it on the first page with a little bit of glue.

Mabel smiled softly as she looked at the picture. "Yeah, it won't be bad at all. I'm gonna have the best summer ever." She closed the book. "Just like you'd want me to."


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't long until Mabel was called to dinner, where she saw Ford, Stan and Soos had cooked up a massive serving of Stancakes.

"Don't get used to it, kid." Stan had said. "Soos just had some leftover pancake mix in the fridge."

Mabel's eyes went wide when she saw the massive stack on her plate. "That's a lot of leftovers." To everyone's amazement she still managed to scarf the entire pile down.

"Jeez, kid, were you starving or something?"

"You're bigger on the inside than you are on the outside!"

"Yes, Soos, I agree. I think Mabel just broke several laws of physics."

"Well, I'm full!" Mabel pushed back her chair and rested two hands on her stomach. "Maybe a little bit too full, oof…"

The four continued catching up for a while, but it soon became apparent Mabel was slowly drifting off. Soos talked about the Mystery Shack and how he'd managed to double profit 'just by making the attractions a little cuter!'

"Well, I know somebody who specializes in making stuff cute." Ford winked at Mabel, who was sleepily oblivious.

"Really?" The girl struggled to keep her eyes open. "Who's… that…"

Stan lightly nudged his great niece. "You, knuckle-" They watched as Mabel tumbled off the chair and started snoring on the floor next to Waddles. "-head. Wow, somebody's real tired."

"She's had a long bus ride, I suppose." Ford smiled down at Mabel, then back up at his brother. "Anyway, she's not the only one ready for bed. I'm heading to the Twin Room, you coming?"

"I'm gonna take her to bed first." Stan lightly scooped up Mabel in his arms. "Give me a- Soos, what are you doing?"

"That's so… sweet, Mr Pines!" Soos brought out a camera. "I gotta take a picture!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's not like I'm gonna leave her to sleep out here on the floor… 'cause I spent money on that bedroom, you know! Mainly the carpet."

So Stan carried Mabel over to her bedroom and laid her down on her bed. He drew the blinds and softly closed the door, leaving her alone in the peaceful room.

Well, almost. In the darkness a soft whisper carried itself over to the sleeping girl: "Goodnight, Mabel."

Mabel sighed and turned over. Deep in the world of dreams, she mumbled back: "Goodnight, Dipper."

* * *

Mabel was woken up in the morning by an airhorn. She jumped awake, eyes wide, to see Soos standing by the door.

"Morning, Mabel! Time for your employee training!"

Mabel sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Soos, you interrupted my dream! I was having a good one, with unicorns!"

"Sorry, Hambone." Soos paused. "Wait, don't you hate unicorns?"

Yeah, I was punching them in the face!" She blinked. "Wait, employee training? We never had any employee training last year."

"Oh, Mr Pines number 2 was showing me some studies: apparently training actually increases profit and stuff. It sounds unlikely, but hey, I'll believe anything that looks official." Soos brought out a small stack of yellowed papers that looked more like they belonged in a museum than an office. "I found these Mystery Shack employee safety manuals So I was thinking I could read all this to you during breakfast – what do you say, dude?"

Mabel rubbed her chin. "Depends… will you do funny voices?"

"Oh, yeah! I can do all the funny voices you can think of: robot, compulsive singing disorder, Darth Vader… I also do a pretty good Golem impression." He looked over to Waddles still sleeping in his basket by the desk. "I think I even still have some pig language left over from that time I switched bodies with Waddles. So," He raised a hand for a high five. "is it a deal? Don't leave me hanging!"

Mabel got out of bed, walked up to the man and solemnly pressed her hand into his. "Done."

Ford shouldn't have been as surprised as he was when Soos and Mabel burst into the living room singing the employee safety manual at the top of their lungs. Stan didn't seem to find it surprising; he sat in his chair through the whole ordeal, head in the newspaper and coffee in his hand like a typical non-morning person.

"In the event of a fiiiire," Soos sang. "The exit is that way, and the fire extinguisher is right heeeere!" He pointed to a space clearly devoid of a fire extinguisher. "Huh. I guess this document needs updating. Anyway, that's it."

Mabel clapped. "That was so cool! The power of funny voices makes everything better!" She looked to Stan. "Why didn't you read this to us last summer?"

The old man turned a page. "Kid, the legal mumbo jumbo surrounding businesses is like any other terms of service; the more I put off reading it, the less I want to know what I've been agreeing to all these years."

"You could read it in a funny voice!"

"Not gonna happen. I don't do funny voices."

Ford chuckled. "You sound like Dad."

"What? No!" Stan sat up. "I'd like to see you do one of those funny voices, Poindexter."

"Ahh, fair enough." Ford stood up. "Well, I'm going down to the lab now. Call me for lunch!"

The three watched him go, then looked to Stan.

"What?" The old man grumbled. "I'm not moving from here. The news is on in five minutes."

Soos blinked. "Didn't you just read a newspaper, Mr Pines?"

As he spoke, the TV suddenly sprang to life in a blaze of black and white. "Salutations, ladies and gentlemen! You're watching the black-and-white-period-piece-old-lady-boring-movie channel, up next is-"

Stan shut off the television and glared at the two. "I was gonna switch the channel. Now don't you knuckleheads have some work to do?"

"Oh, yeah." Soos grinned at Mabel. "You ready for your first day back on the job?"

Mabel put a hand to her mouth, making heavy breathing sounds as she said, "Yes, emperor. I am ready."

"Haha, that's a great impression of Mr Pines when I watch him sleep!" Soos looked back to Stan, whose head had whipped around in a very alarmed manner. "I meant nothing by that comment."

A few minutes later, Soos had Mabel designing attractions out of junk while he was sorting out the change in the cashier. She had a creepy-looking doll in a white dress, a video game controller with a fraying wire and a toothbrush.

Mabel frowned, stroking her chin and letting her imagination take her in slightly disturbing directions with these three items. The girl's face lit up with a bright idea, and within a couple seconds she had removed the doll's head and stuck the video game controller on in its place. She then wrote a sign for it: 'THE FUTURE OF ARE SPACIES?'

"Hmmm…" Mabel stepped back, feeling that something was missing. She stuck the toothbrush in the doll's hand, but that still didn't quite finish the job.

"Wait… aha!" With a grin, Mabel plugged the controller in the wall. The frayed wires started sizzling and sparking, much to her satisfaction. "Mini fireworks! And Soos told me where the fire escape is, if anything happens!" She brushed the sparks off of her sweater. " _When_ anything happens."

"Looks great, Hambone!" Soos gave her the thumbs up, then held up two different hats. One was a baseball cap with a question mark on it, the other with a shooting star. "I was thinking of putting these by the front, but there's only enough shelf space for one kind. Which one do you prefer?"

At that moment, there was a crash from Soos's office. The man looked up "Hey, did you hear that?"

"Yeah." Mabel put her hands on her hips. "This looks like the start of a summer full of supernatural adventures. Good thing I have a new… grappling hook!" She brandished her weapon.

"Haha, totally." Soos straightened his fez. "There is no way this random sound could not be something weird. Let's go check it out, dude."

Mabel and Soos crept up to the door and slowly opened it, revealing…

"Aww." Mabel's face fell. "It's just a box that fell over."

Soos went over to pick the box up. "That's too bad. I was really pumped for something… something..." He trailed off

"Soos? What's wrong?" Mabel raised an eyebrow and walked over. She then realized what had gotten the man so worked up: it was a box full of pine tree hats.

"I'm so sorry, Hambone," Soos lifted the box right side up. "I don't know how this fell, it was on the first level!"

"It's fine, Soos." Mabel shrugged. "Just a bunch of hats, right?"

Soos laughed a little too loudly. "Oh, yeah, I'm glad you think that way Hambone. 'Cuz if Mr Pines died or anything, I would probably just burst into tears whenever I see something like a red fez, you know? Actually, I'd probably burst into tears even if I didn't see a red fez. BECAUSE NO, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!" He wiped his eyes, shuddering. "I don't want to think about Mr Pines dying ever again. Hey, what were we talking about?"

Mabel looked towards the door. "Oh, nothing important."

As Soos was cleaning up, Mabel wandered back into the gift shop, hands in her pockets, looking down at the floor. She looked to her video game doll attraction, and then she stopped. And her jaw dropped.

Because there was a blue pinetree hat inexplicably sitting on it.

"Oh, hey, kid!" She turned to see her Grunkle Stan rushing across the gift shop. "I just need to use the outhouse before the commercials run out. For the news, you know!"

"H-hey, Grunkle Stan."

Stan slowed to a halt, and looked at his grand niece a raised eyebrow. "Hey, kid, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost!" He paused. "That felt like an appropriate expression."

"I'm fine, Grunkle Stan." Mabel shook herself, inching towards the snack machine. "I just want to talk to my Grunkle Ford about something."

"Huh." Stan watched her go. "She looked like she had something really big on her mind, maybe I should-"

"And now, we're back to _The Duchess Approves_!" The TV blared, and Stan jumped in panic.

"Oh no, I'm gonna miss the funeral!" He dashed back to the living room. "I'm coming, Duchess!"


	4. Chapter 4

Mabel stepped into the elevator underneath the shack, all of a sudden feeling a little foolish. It sounded ridiculous in her head; Dipper's ghost, in the shack? She'd just reacted when she saw the hat, jumped to conclusions. There could have been tons of reasons why that hat ended up on her attraction, like… like…

She didn't know, but she knew Ford would probably have some smart explanation for it. And then he'd look at her with that uncomfortable pitying expression she noticed people put on whenever she mentioned Dipper, and it'd be weird between the two of them for a few days.

Still, here she was, arriving at floor three, to ask her great uncle about ghosts. It'd be hard to turn back now.

The door opened, and Mabel was confronted with her Grunkle standing in front of the elevator, a quizzical frown on his face. Now there was no way to turn back.

"Hi, Grunkle Ford." Mabel laughed nervously, stepping out of the elevator. "Have you been standing like that all morning?"

"No, but I heard somebody was coming down." Ford clasped his arms behind his back "May I ask what you're doing down here? I don't remember you having a particular interest in my research last summer."

"You got me there." Mabel rubbed her neck. "That was all Dipper, with the journals and stuff."

And there was that pitying expression she dreaded. "Oh, yes… Dipper. I… didn't know him for long, but he certainly had the makings of a great paranormal researcher. Would have made an excellent apprentice."

Mabel cringed, and the old man must have noticed. "Look, Mabel, maybe I'm not the best person to speak to about this-"

"But that's not why I came down here!" She blurted out, then hesitated. Ford nodded for her to go on. "I wanted to ask you about ghosts."

"Ghosts?" Ford immediately rushed over to his desk and pulled out a red journal labeled '4'. He flipped through it. "That's another entry I need to replace, since that demon burned all my research."

Mabel's heart sank. "So, you don't know about ghosts?"

"What? No, don't worry." Ford knocked on his temple, which gave out a metal clanking sound as he did. "I've spent most of my life studying the anomalies of Gravity Falls. Everything I know about them is safe in my mind." He paused, thinking. "Ghosts, you say? Those creatures are… disappointing, to say the least."

Mabel frowned. "Why are they disappointing, Grunkle Ford?"

"Well, when a person passes, their drive to continue existing can sometimes leave an imprint on their environment. Unfortunately even the strongest imprints are incomplete and thus result in an incomplete entity, comprised only of its most dominant-"

"Whaaat?"

Ford sighed. "Mabel, to explain it in simple terms I will use the example of a sieve and flour. The largest-" He stopped abruptly.

"Go on, Grunkle Ford!" Mabel tried for a smile. "I like cooking, so this should be easy to understand!"

Ford spoke in a lower voice, looking his great niece right in the eye with an unreadable expression. "Before I continue, I want to ask you something, Mabel."

"Yes?"

"Is there a specific reason you're asking me about ghosts?" Ford queried. "Something you've observed? Someone you… have in mind?"

Mabel laughed nervously, rubbing her arm. "Haha, well, funny story…"

"Is it to do with Dipper?"

"Well, maybe?" She shrugged helplessly. "I just saw something weird; it looked kinda like something a ghost would do, I guess?"

"Hmm…" Ford stood up to his full height, stroking his chin. "I had theorized something like this might happen, but so soon?"

"Grunkle Ford?"

Suddenly, Ford started tearing up the lab in a frenzy, throwing up pieces of paper and fragile looking objects in a way Mabel hadn't seen him do before. "Where is it, where is it? Ugh, it's been so long since I've needed it…"

"Needed what?"

"It must still be in the bunker!" Ford smacked his forehead immediately started gathering things from his surroundings, among them included his journal, what looked like a thick black bracelet and a large crossbow. He threw on a heavy dark trenchcoat and began storing all the items inside.

"Wait, Grunkle Ford!" Mabel threw up her hands. "What are you doing? Where are you going?"

Ford looked down at Mabel, seeming to calm down just a little. He reached out and ruffled his great niece's hair with a six-fingered hand. "Mabel, it's nothing. I'll be back by dinner, okay?" He paused. "But If I am gone any longer, tell Stanley to 'release the bombs', okay?"

Mabel grabbed her great uncle's hand and held it firmly, looking very worried. "Release the bombs?! That doesn't sound like nothing!"

"It's just a code." He extracted his hand and walked quickly towards the elevator.

"But, where are you going?"

"See you for dinner!" Ford waved as the doors closed.

"But-" It was too late, and with a sigh Mabel watched the elevator numbers tick back up to one. Then she shrugged. "Huh, I wonder what that was all about! Well at least he didn't think I was crazy… or crazier than I already am, right…?"

Mabel trailed off as she realized she was three stories below the earth, in a creepy lab, talking to herself. "Huh. You got me… me!" She placed her hands on her hips. "Wow, I really am crazy. Hahaha, hahaha, hahahahaha! Yeah…"

Once she stopped laughing, it returned to that eerie silence. Mabel cleared her throat and awkwardly headed towards the elevator, glad nobody had been there to witness that rather interesting moment.

* * *

While Ford was gone, Mabel was up in the gift shop, peddling her video game doll to the tourists with a rather excessive amount of enthusiasm. At the same time she was keeping a close eye on her environment, watching, waiting for some sort of ghostly event to happen like what she'd witnessed earlier.

It never came.

Soon it was lunch break. Everyone wondered where Ford was, but Mabel's shrug and explanation of, "He's doing weird research stuff." was more than enough to satisfy everyone. After lunch, the shack opened again and more tourists came again.

Mabel just couldn't wait for her Grunkle Ford to be back with whatever mysterious thing he had gone to fetch. This made the afternoon pass by incredibly slowly, and by the time the door closed on the last tourist she was lying face-down on the floor.

"Now that was a good day!" Soos lifted up his eyepatch and started thumbing through the day's earnings. "I can't wait to show Wendy tomorrow. So Mabel, how did you enjoy your first day on the job with Soos?"

"Soooo boooorrrring." Mabel mumbled.

Soos' smile dropped. "Oh. Sorry, hambone."

"No, no, wait!" Mabel shot up, looking stricken. "Blarg! I didn't mean it was boring to work here, I had a lot of fun! I just can't wait for Grunkle Ford to get home."

"Oh? Wasn't he out, doing research stuff?"

"Yeah." Mabel wandered over to a window to look at the orange sky. "He said he'd be back by dinner, and if he wasn't to tell Grunkle Stan something about bombs. I just couldn't stop thinking about it all day!"

"That sounds exciting." The man walked over to stand next to Mabel. "Hey, is that him over there?"

Mabel looked to where Soos had pointed, and indeed there was a man in a brown coat approaching them. She saw he was cradling one if his arms as if it was hurt, and she immediately rushed out of the shack to see what was the matter.

"Grunkle Ford!" Mabel raced right up to the man, who gave her an odd look before breaking out into a wide smile. "Are you hurt?"

"What? No." Ford lifted his hand to reveal what looked like a thick black bracelet wrapped around his arm.

"What's that?"

"Nothing of importance, child." The old man then reached inside his coat and brought out what looked like a wooden chopping board, but with elegant black letters typed from A-Z on its front. With it came a smaller wooden triangle with a hole through the middle. He handed both of them to his great niece. "There you go."

"What is this?" Mabel frowned down at it. The wood was cold to the touch, and though the triangle seemed separate from the main board it mysteriously did not fall off.

"It's an Ouija Board. You use it to talk to ghosts."

Mabel's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

"You use it to talk to ghosts." Ford walked past Mabel. "Have fun with it, child."

He left Mabel standing out in the parking lot, staring down at the Ouija Board in her hands. As she watched in amazement, the triangle began to move around the board, stopping with the circle around various letters for a moment before continuing on its path.

H-E-L-L-O-M-A-B-E-L

HELLO MABEL. Then: THIS IS DIPP-

Mabel dropped the Board, reeling in shock. "No, no, this can't be happening. No way! Oh my gosh, _Dipper_?" The girl picked it up. "Sorry. I just can't believe it's actually you!"

E-R.

"Oh my gosh, I don't believe it! I-I've missed you so much, I've got so many things to tell you, this almost doesn't feel like it's real! I've got to tell someone, someone…" She snapped her fingers. "I've got to tell Grunkle Stan!"


	5. Chapter 5

"Grunkle Stan! _Grunkle Stan_!" The old man looked up from his chair to see Mabel running towards him.

"Hey, pumpkin!" He pointed at the TV. "I was thinking we could watch some Ducktective-"

"Look at this!" Mabel shoved a wooden board in Stan's face.

"A block of wood?"

"No, it's a wee… a wee… a Luigi Board! That's how you say it, right?"

"One of those things?" Stan snorted, pushing the board away. "Kid, those ghost boards are the oldest, cheapest scam in the book. Even I didn't stoop as low as to sell those things… much."

"But you don't understand! Look!" She held it out, and the triangle began to move.

"G, R, U, N, K, L, E." Stan frowned. "Gru Enkley? I don't get it."

"Grunkle!" Mabel gripped the board. "He means Grunkle Stan!"

"He? Grunkle? You're not saying-" Stan's eyes widened with understanding. "Oh. Whoa. Uh, hey… Dipper." The triangle started moving again. "H-E-Y-G-R-"

"Hey Grunkle Stan? I think that's what he's saying." Mabel grinned. "I'm very good at putting words in people's mouths."

"Welp, I just talked to an invisible dead person." Stan looked to the TV. "I need to sit and rethink everything over an episode of Ducktective. You and your… brother, staying?"

Mabel hugged the Board to her chest. "Well, I was going to go in my room and catch up with my brother." She paused. "My brother. That sounds really weird to say. I'm going to have to get used to it again!"

"Have fun, kiddo." Stan sat staring at the TV for a few moments as Mabel left. Then he blinked and looked around. "So I'm watching Ducktective on my own. Hmph."

At that moment Ford walked through the hallway, and Stan waved at him. "Hey, Poindexter! Want to watch some Duck-"

Ford turned his head around 90 degrees and hissed at Stan before continuing on his way. Stan blinked in mild surprise. "Sheesh, wonder what's his problem."

Meanwhile Mabel had run over to her room and set the board down. She found a pen and looked everywhere for paper before eventually settling to rip a blank page out of her scrapbook. Then she laid down on the soft pinkness of her carpet and grinned at the Board.

"Okay, okay, I'm calm, just-" She squealed in excitement. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this is just _so amazing_! I can't believe it's actually you, Dipper! I thought I'd never see you again – well, I can't see you still but I can talk to you!"

The triangle started to move around the board, and Mabel quickly recorded the letters it stopped on.

"S-L-O-W-D-O-W-N. Slow down? Hah!" Mabel giggled. "You just can't handle the Mabel, can you?"

NO

"Is that all you're gonna say?" She shrugged. "I guess it must be hard to say really long stuff with just this little board… how do we make this work?"

YES AND NO ANSWERS

Mabel snapped her fingers. "Great idea! So how's being a ghost, bro bro?"

The triangle was knocked off to the side of the board, as if the one controlling it had just swatted it away in sheer frustration.

"Oh, yeah, yes and no answers. So… are you having fun with all your cool ghostly powers?"

NO

"No? Well, I guess that's not suprising." Mabel looked down. "I haven't really been having much fun either without you. I really missed you. A lot of people said I could talk to them about you, but whenever I tried they get all uncomfortable and go away. I don't like making people uncomfortable." She stroked the Board. "Besides, whenever I felt down, the only person I really wanted to talk to, was you. You know what I mean?"

YES

Mabel smiled. "You get me. You missed me too, right?"

YES

"Haha, that was a silly question! I'm just glad to have you back, bro bro."

Over the next few hours, Mabel asked her brother about every yes-or-no question a person could conceivably come up with. Some of them were incredibly silly, like: do ghosts wear clothes? Is it funny when you're standing around naked in front of a bunch of people and they can't see you? Some of them were rather serious: Do you ever get lonely in the Mystery Shack?

To the last one, Dipper gave a rather interesting answer: I DON'T KNOW.

"Huh?" Mabel yawned; it was the early hours of the morning, after all. "What do you mean you don't know, bro bro?"

The triangle didn't move immediately, so Mabel laid her head down on the warm, fluffy carpet. Her eyes began to droop, and before she knew it she had completely dropped off.

After a second, the lights shut off and the curtains drew themselves, leaving Mabel sleeping peacefully on her fluffy carpet. She sighed happily and curled up, her dreams full of-

The door was thrown open, and Mabel jumped up to see Grunkle Stan standing in his pyjamas, eyes as wide as his grin. "Hot Belgian Waffles, I just realized! I actually talked to Dipper!" He dove for the Board, screaming, " _DIIIIPPERRRRR_!"


	6. Chapter 6

The next day Mabel was again woken up by an airhorn from Soos. This time, however, she took it a little less well than yesterday.

"Ughhhhh…" She groaned and rolled over. "I'm tired, and I just had the strangest dream…"

Soos blinked. "About unicorns?"

"No," Mabel sat up and rubbed her baggy eyes. "I was talking to Di- I was talking to some ghost, and then Grunkle Stan tackled us…" She paused. "And then I had a dream about punching unicorns. Woo, two dreams in one night!"

"Oh, dude," Soos shook his head. "The dream was real."

"The unicorn punching?"

"No, Dipper! Mr Pines was telling me all about it." The man rubbed the back of his head. "To think he was here all along… I dunno how I feel. Was he watching me all this time? Because that's sorta creepy..."

"Don't be like that, Soos!" Mabel got out of bed. "This is Dipper we're talking about. He probably watches you, but he watches everything that looks even the slightest bit strange! Isn't that right?"

Mabel looked over to the Ouija Board, which spelt out a firm YES. "See?"

"Huh." Soos backed out of the room. "Well, see you for breakfast, Hambone!"

Once she left, Mabel put her hands on her hips and stared down at the Board. "Good morning, Dipper!"

GOOD MORNING

She broke into a massive grin. "Oh, wow, last night really wasn't one of those awful dreams, was it? You're really here!" She picked up the Board and skipped over to her door, humming a happy song as she made her way towards the living room.

Much like before, Stan was sitting in front of the TV with a coffee and newspaper. Soos was leaning on the arm of the chair, absorbed by the commercials.

"Morning, Mabel." Stan waved, looking particularly tired.

"Morning, Grunkle Stan! Morning, Soos!" Mabel blinked. "Where's Grunkle Ford?"

"Stanford?" Stan took a sip of his coffee. "My brother's been acting weird lately and he won't tell me what's up."

Ford walked in the room, right up against Mabel. She felt his breath on the back of her neck and jumped away in shock.

"See, that's what I'm talking about!"

"Talking about what?" Ford crossed his arms. "I'm Stanford Pines, the Author."

Stan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Poindexter, we all know. You don't have to tell us twice." He pointed at Ford's arm with his coffee, causing the liquid to slosh around and spill. "And what's that black thingymajig on your arm anyway?"

Ford quickly covered the bracelet up with his other hand, narrowing his eyes and remaining silent. The two brothers stared at each other like that for a moment.

Then Soos cleared his throat. "Haha, you could cut the tension with a knife right now." He hesitated. "The only thing that would make this more awkward is if somebody came in right now."

"Hey, guys!" Wendy stuck her head out from the back entrance. "I found these super weird looking tracks as I was driving to work, and I was wondering…" She trailed off as she saw everyone staring at her in silence. "Uh… what's going on?"

" _You_." Ford's eyes narrowed. Everybody looked to him with confusion.

"What about me?"

"Ahem, it's nothing… I have to go down to my lab." Ford quickly backed away and left, still clutching his arm. Stan frowned after him, got up out of his chair and followed.

Mabel raised an eyebrow. "That was really strange…" She shrugged it off, and grinned at Wendy. "But do I have something to show you!"

Wendy raised an eyebrow. "I still have no idea what just happened there."

"Look!" Mabel pulled out the Ouija Board. "It's _Dipper_."

"Dipper…. What? Okay, can somebody tell me what's going on, right now? Soos?"

Soos rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, yesterday Hambone thought she saw a ghost, so Mr Pines 2 gave her that Board thing. And now it turns out Dipper is a ghost in the Mystery Shack!"

Wendy raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Riiight. And, ring ring! My Mom's on the phone, so I'm getting out of here."

"Wait, it's true!" Mabel held up the Board. "Look, it's gonna move any second now…"

The triangle did not move. "Any second now… You gotta believe me!"

After a moment, Wendy placed a hesitant hand on Mabel's shoulder. "Look, Mabel. I know you're not lying about your brother. But maybe staying cooped up in the Mystery Shack isn't doing wonders for your head." She grinned and stuck a thumb behind her. "How's about the two of us ditch work and go hang around town for a bit?"

Mabel shrugged her off. "I don't know, Wendy… I'm going to go see what's up with Dipper. Maybe later!" She dashed away to her room, leaving Wendy and Soos together alone.

"That's funny, it was working earlier." Soos laughed nervously as Wendy put her hands on her hips and glared down at the man. "Hey… haha, what's up, dawg?"

"Is this some kind of sick joke?!" Wendy exploded before continuing in a quieter, furious tone. "She's been here two days and one of you morons has convinced her Dipper's haunting the Mystery Shack? How's she going to feel when it turns out that board's just a fake?"

"Wendy, it's not. Stanford gave her that board, and it totally works."

"You'd better be telling the truth." Wendy backed out of the house. "Anyway, I'm not staying around here with this going on. Seeya around, boss!"

"Bye, Wendy!" Soos waved, then looked around. "Wait… Mr Pines? Mabel? Who's gonna help me set up today?"

* * *

Mabel was sitting on her rug, another torn out piece of the scrapbook in front of her, looking down at the Ouija Board with a worried expression.

"Dipper?" She called, but still nothing happened. "Come on, bro bro, where are you?"

It was as if he had completely disappeared. Mabel anxiously chewed on her hair, saying again, "Dipper?"

Still no response. Mabel sighed and slumped down on her pink carpet. She started doodling on her scrapbook page, thinking about how much a waste it was to tear it out.

That was when her door flew open, as if from a blast. Mabel jumped up, but there was no one on the other side.

Then the triangle on the Ouija Board began to move, very frantically. She could hardly make out the message:

GO TO FORDS LAB

"Wha-" Mabel didn't get to finish her sentence before her dresser was suddenly flung violently into the wall. All of her room began to shake and whistle as if there was a great gust of wind passing through it.

Mabel jumped to her feet and dashed out of the room. The invisible force followed her, slamming cupboards and whistling through woodwork as she raced through the hallways and into the gift shop.

"Oh, hey, Hambone." Soos gave a wave. "We're just about to open-"

"No time to explain!" Mabel ran up to the vending machine, but she quickly jumped back as it began to spark and sway from side to side. As she watched it was ripped right off its hinges and tossed aside, smoking and beeping.

For a second Mabel could only stare in shock before turning to Soos. "Really no time to explain!" Then she disappeared into the dark hallway behind.

Soos waved. "Uh, okay. As long as you tell me later." He paused, looking down at the busted machine. "I should put that back."

Mabel dashed into the elevator, the buttons already being pressed for her by the invisible force. She took a second to breathe as the numbers ticked up to three.

"Haha, Dipper, so what's all this about?" She laughed nervously, then remembered: "Oh, darn! I left the Luigi Board upstairs!"

The doors then opened, and Mabel's jaw dropped.

The first thing she noticed was the giant monsterous _thing_ pressing somebody up against the side of a wall, choking them with a human six-fingered hand.

And then she noticed the poor soul being choked was… "Grunkle Stan!"

The monster turned, and in that moment Stan delivered a brass-knuckles punch to the side of its face. It roared and fell to the side, letting the old man fall to the ground, gasping for air.

"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel ran over. "What happened?"

"Kid…" Stan's purple face was gradually returning to normal. "That wasn't… Stanford…"

"No, it wasn't." There was a deep voice from where the monster had fallen, and Mabel turned to see a familiar monster, with white congealed skin and buglike red eyes. On one of its arms was a black bracelet, and below that bracelet appeared to be Ford's regular six-fingered arm. "I'm surprised it took you so long to find out."

"The shapeshifter!" Mabel gasped. Then she pointed at the monster's hand. "But, eww, what's happening there?"

"One of the Author's sly tricks." It then shifted into a massive gremloblin, yet the hand remained the same. "That doesn't matter to you though, child. I'm still going to tear your forms into pieces!"

"Kid, run…" Stan weakly shoved his great niece away, but she held firm, grabbing his hand and getting out a grappling hook.

"No way, Grunkle Stan! I've got a plan!"

The shapeshifter slowed, hissing. The last thing it wanted was to be caught in another trap.

Mabel pointed the grappling hook at the shapeshifter… then dropped it and dashed towards the elevator, pulling her Grunkle along. "Haha, psyche!"

The shapeshifter roared and charged as the elevator doors began to close. It tried to shift into something small, but the black bracelet prevented it from squeezing in.

Grunkle Stan started weakly laughing, holding onto Mabel's shoulder for stability as the elevator started climbing floor. "Oh… wow. Thanks, kid, I thought I was a goner. H-how'd you know I was in trouble?"

"Dipper told me." Mabel said simply. The old man blinked, rubbing his neck.

"Wow… Always knew that kid-"

They were interrupted as three claws thrust themselves out of the elevator floor. The doors opened, and Mabel and Stan quickly jumped out, running for the exit. The shapeshifter clawed its way out of the shaft and shifted into Stanford, a twisted glare on his face.

"You can't escape me!" Mabel and Stan came to the entrance, where they saw the vending machine had been replaced against the wall. Stan roughly shoved it and it toppled to the ground, paving the way to a gift shop full of surprised tourists. The two got out of the entrance and turned just in time to see the shapeshifter emerge, taking on the form of a massive one-eyed red monster. "I'm going to kill and eat all of you!"

It was at that moment a massive wind seemed to sweep through the shop, picking up souvenirs in a whirlwind. The shapeshifter looked over and began to laugh.

"A ghost? Haha, I fear no-" The cashier came flying off the counter and smacked the monster in it's one big eye. It roared in pain and stumbled back, blinking rapidly. "Argh, nice try. But it's going to take more than that to defeat me!"

All the lights in the gift shop smashed one by one. Then the monster began to be pelted with items from the giftshop; stone tablets, glass jars, a mounted bear head with a unicorn horn attached to it. The monster tried to brace itself but only managed to slip and fall backwards, smashing a hole into the side of the Mystery Shack.

Everything suddenly stopped moving, just hanging in the air as the shapeshifter picked itself up.

"Hmph." It said, then shifted back into Ford. "So I may not be able to beat you right now, with that ghost. But I will have my vengeance!"

The shapeshifter ran away, and all of a sudden all the levitating items dropped down. Mabel, Stan and Soos looked at each other in shock, before turning to the frozen audience of tourists.

"Um, uh…" Stan put on a wide smile and started clapping. "Give it up for our actors! This was a one time special for all of you, make sure to tip Mr Mystery over there!"

Everyone burst out in applause. Stan stayed with that grin on his face for a second more before turning to Mabel. "Now, let's go find my brother. I think I know where he went."


	7. Chapter 7

Mabel trailed behind her Grunkle Stan as the two trekked through the forest, holding the Ouija Board to her chest. "So, where are we going again?"

"Your old Grunkle Ford's bomb shelter." Stan swished his 8-ball cane at the plants growing around the path. "I remember him telling me about that shapeshifting creature; he also told me a codeword in case it ever got out and we needed to recognize each other."

"Release the bombs?" Mabel asked, and Grunkle Stan snapped his fingers.

"That's the one. I didn't think I'd ever need it, but here we are." He stopped at a tree, and tapped it with his cane. It let out a clanging sound. "Literally."

"Hehe, nice one Grunkle Stan." Mabel came to a stop by her great uncle. "Huh, I remember being here but I don't remember how to open it. Do you, Dipper?"

The triangle slider on the Board moved to spell: PULL THE BRANCH

"Oh yeah, the branch! Thanks, bro bro." Mabel got out a (replacement) grappling hook and shot at an odd-looking branch. The rope wrapped around it and she pulled it down, revealing a staircase wrapped around the tree, going down into darkness.

Stan shuddered. "I don't know what it is with my brother and dark, creepy, underground places. I mean it is a bomb shelter, but come on. Who'd ever want to live down there?"

"You're right, Grunkle Stan." Mabel tapped her chin. "I'd build a bomb shelter next to the falls, so I could see rainbows every day!"

The old man looked down at his great niece. "Rainbow? That's still a dirty word to me, kid."

"Oh, yeah." Mabel blushed and started down the steps. "Let's just get going, shall we?"

Mabel and Stan continued down wards until they got to an opening in the metal tree, where they continued into an old shelter filled with cobwebs.

"Sheesh," Stan put his hands on his hips, looking around. "Second thoughts, I'd definitely take the rainbow over-"

"You!" The two suddenly found themselves facing the end of a crossbow, with a very scruffy looking Ford behind it. "What's the code word?"

Stan rolled his eyes. "Release the bombs."

Ford dropped the crossbow, running his six fingers through his hair. "I-it's really you. I've been trapped down here eating dusty rations for two days!" He laughed, the noise coming off a little more unhinged than intended. "Thank you so much."

"Hey," Stan grinned. "No need to thank me this time. Now let's get you home and fix you up, eh-"

"But the shapeshifter!" Stanford grabbed his brother's shoulders. "What happened to it? Did you destroy it?"

Stan's grin stretched uncomfortably wide. "Well, you see… it may or may not have... escaped. Into town."

If the situation hadn't been so serious, the look on Ford's face would have been priceless.

"But hey, look on the bright side!" Stan shrugged. "It's got this weird bracelet thing on it. Dunno how it got there, but it-"

"Locks part of the shapeshifter in the last form it took. I know. I managed to put that on him when we fought." Ford shook himself, and gave a little smile. "Actually, with that locking device on, this situation may not be as bad as I predicted. It's melded onto his form; short of lopping off his arm, he won't be able to get that off."

"And we have Dipper!" Mabel held up the Board, a massive grin on her face. Ford looked over in her direction.

"Dipper?" He asked carefully, all traces of a smile dropping from his face.

Grunkle Stan placed a hand on his grand niece's shoulder. "Yeah, Dipper! You won't believe it, Poindexter, but it was that kid who just saved our butts from the shapeshifter." He paused. "Hey, Stanford, are you feeling alright? You look a little pale."

Stanford backed away, hands on his temples. "No, no, no, this was _not_ meant to happen!"

Mabel raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"Mabel, I'm so sorry. But you were not supposed to get that Ouija Board!"

"What do you mean?" Mabel gripped the Board a little tighter, and beside her Stanley's face set into a frown. "What were you getting it for, then?"

"It's…. it's complicated, Mabel. You need to understand!" Stanford held out his hands in front of him. "Ghosts aren't like the people they're an imprint of. Their personalities get warped and simplified; they're not safe to be around!"

"What?" The girl backed up a little. "But Dipper's totally safe! He cares about us! He beat up that shapeshifter for us!"

"He's getting violent?" Ford's eyes widened.

"No! He was just…" Mabel hugged the Board to her chest, feeling something rise up in her throat. "What were you gonna do with him, Grunkle Ford?"

Ford looked away.

"Were you gonna…" She stopped, too choked up to continue.

Stan took one look at Mabel, and glared back at his brother. "Oh, don't you clam up now, Stanford! If you were gonna take away this kid's brother, you'd better have the guts to say it to her face!"

"That's-that's not what exorcism is, Stanley." Ford turned his back, discreetly rubbing his eyes.

"Oh yeah?"

"I told you, the ghost isn't the same as the person. You said he's getting violent; it's only a matter of time before something happens that forever taints the memories of the boy we remember." He looked back. "Do you think that's something Dipper would want?"

Stan's fists clenched. "Oh, don't you _dare_ start talking to us about what Dipper wants!" He lunged at Stanford, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and pinning him against a wall. "You don't even want him around!"

"Stanley, get a hold of yourself!"

"Wait!" Mabel called out, and the two froze to look at her. Mabel was crying, holding out the Board. "You guys can't be fighting again! I just want everyone to get along." She hugged the Board to her chest. "I've finally got my brother back after a whole year, and I don't want to loose him again! Grunkle Ford, give him a chance!"

Stanley got off his brother, allowing him brush himself off. "Mabel, I know it's hard, but you don't understand-"

"No, you don't understand!" Mabel interrupted. "I know Dipper, and the Dipper now is the same as the Dipper a whole summer ago! He cares about me and talks to me; he was even the one who found out about the shapeshifter! So I don't care what your dumb research says, can't you just give him a chance? Please?"

Ford looked to Stan, who crossed his arms and glared. Then he looked to Mabel, who was giving him puppy-dog eyes.

Then he sighed. "Okay, fine." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "We can give this ghost a chance; I suppose we need all the help we can get catching the shapeshifter."

"Yes!" Mabel punched the air.

"But if he gets violent in any way…"

"He won't, Grunkle Ford."She stared for a few seconds at the Board. Then: "Dipper says thank you!"

Ford raised an eyebrow. Immediately Stan threw an arm around his brother. "See, the kid's got manners. That's more than you can say for me!"

"Hmph, well, we'll see how this works out." Stanford began to walk out of the bunker. "Let's go back. I want to freshen up and eat some actual food before we go and catch the shapeshifter."

Stan followed close behind, and Mabel at a little more of a distance. She smiled down at the Board. "See, Dipper, everything's working out! I'm not gonna let Grunkle Ford do anything to you." She rubbed her eyes. "He's just being all silly; you don't want to hurt anyone, right?"

The triangle began to move. From I to W, from W to A, and so on, spelling out:

I WANT TO HURT THE SHAPESHIFTER.

"Oh, haha." Mabel laughed nervously, quickly putting the Board under her arm. "You and your terrible jokes, Dipper."


	8. Chapter 8

_Content note - violence_

* * *

The three got back to the Shack just as it was closing for lunch. While Stanford was going upstairs to have his first shower in two days, Mabel and her Grunkle were explaining the whole situation to Soos.

"And that's how this shapeshifter got away. Ford says he probably fled into town." Stan finished. "We'll be looking for a guy with a black bracelet around one arm… and probably an imprint of my fist from where I socked him."

"Wow." Soos' eyes widened. "I should call Wendy. She'd love this."

"Ooh, ooh!" Mabel's eyes brightened. "Can I call Wendy?"

The man typed in Wendy's number and handed her his phone. "Sure, dawg."

With a wide smile, Mabel held it up to her ear, tapping her foot as it rang. It picked up within three beats with a: "Soos?"

"Nope." Mabel giggled, walking into the hallway with the Ouija Board under one arm.

"Mabel?" Wendy's tone immediately brightened. "Hey, dude! I've been hanging around my house all day with nothing to do. You still up for a look around town?"

"I can do you one better, Wendy! We're going on an adventure around town to look for the shapeshifter?"

There was a pause. "Are you saying somewhere in Gravity Falls, there's a dangerous monster disguised as one of us?"

"Yep!"

"Then count me in, man! I wouldn't miss an adventure with the Pines family for anything!"

"Hehe." Mabel's grin stretched a mile. "And we're bringing Dipper!"

"That sounds- wait, what?"

"We're bringing Dipper." Mabel explained. "It turns out when I was showing the Luigi Board to you, he was off investigating something – typical Dipper! But now he's back, and you can meet him again for real!"

Mabel waited, but there was no response from the line. "Wendy?"

"Oh, hey, listen," Wendy started. "Something literally just cropped up in my schedule. I won't be able to make it today, but make sure to call me next time, okay?"

"Aww, okay." Mabel's smile dampened. "Have fun doing that thing you need to do."

"Uh, yeah, I will. Take care, Mabel!" Wendy hung up, leaving Mabel alone. She brought out the Board.

"Huh, that's too bad Dipper. You'd have liked to see Wendy again, right?"

The triangle started to move, spelling out: WE NEED TO FIND SHAPESHIFTER

"Changing the subject, are we?" Mabel raised a cheeky eyebrow.

WE NEED TO FIND-

"The shapeshifter?" Mabel watched as one of the light bulbs down the hallway whistled and exploded. "Whoa, it's okay. We're going as soon as Grunkle Ford gets down."

She walked back to the living room, where Stan and Soos looked up. "What'd she say, dude?"

"Wendy can't come." Mabel shrugged. "But we can still have lots of fun! I haven't been around town in ages."

Grunkle Stan stood up. "Kid, you can bet we'll have some great times hunting down this dangerous vengeful monster!" He paused. "Dangerous vengeful monster. Don't tell your folks I'm letting you do this."

"Yes." Stanford emerged from a doorway, straightening his coat and attaching a thick black blaster to the back of his belt. "It would be a good thing not to let anyone in town know about the shapeshifter. It would be absolute chaos."

"Oh, yeah, and the townspeople too." Stan chuckled. "Though it'd be fun to see what the dumbest people in the world would do about it. I'm betting some sort of trial by mob."

"I'll write up a hypothesis as soon as we catch it, Stanley." The old man laughed and clapped his brother on the back. "Now, let's go catch that shapeshifter!"

And they were off to the town, arriving within a couple minutes and spending most of the afternoon looking around town. Mabel was perhaps a little more interested in reacquainting herself with the sleepy streets she hadn't seen in a year; she trusted her brother to keep an eye out in her place.

He did, rather enthusiastically. Mabel often found herself having to catch people with their hands in their pockets from being knocked over by what seemed to them a sudden, violent gust of wind. Every time that happened she would look back at Stanford to see if he'd noticed. Some of the time he didn't, but most incidents were followed by a worried stare from the old man.

Mabel had a feeling he was going to talk to her again about Dipper later, even though her brother was completely fine! So what if he pushed a few people around; it wasn't like he could walk up to them and politely ask!

Needless to say, she was exhausted after a couple hours. The four drifted back to the centre of town as the sun began to set.

"Well, that didn't work out." Stanford crossed his arms, pacing in front of Stanley and Soos. Mabel was sitting on the ground a little ways away, making little doodles in the dirt. "Do you think we missed them?"

Stanley crossed his arms. "Please, I've been living in this town for way too long. If anything looked out of place… Soos would tell me about it. What do you think, Soos?"

"What if he went in the woods, Mr Pineses?" Soos suggested.

"With an arm looking like that?" The old man laughed. "Most creatures have an innate hatred of shapeshifters. Why'd you think I studied it so far away from anything else?"

"Huh." Soos scratched the back of his head. "What about if he left Gravity Falls?"

While this was going on, Mabel was interrupted by something licking her check. She looked over to see a small shaggy brown dog, its tail wagging merrily.

"Well hello there, cutie!" Mabel giggled as it jumped up on her sweater. "Haha, I love you too, you little…"

She trailed off as she saw one of the friendly dog's legs appeared to be missing. After a second of realization her smile dropped. "Oh no, you poor thing!"

The dog suddenly jumped off Mabel and dashed a little ways away. Then it turned and barked at her, tail standing straight up. It remained like that for a second before the girl got the message.

"You want me to follow?" Mabel picked up the Ouija Board and stood before running after the dog, calling a goodbye to her friends. They were so caught up in their conversation it seemed they didn't hear her.

Mabel continued after the dog, which kept a close eye on her as it led her down paths, past corners. Eventually it turned down a little alleyway and snuck past a broken wooden fence into the dump.

"Hey," Mabel slowed as she looked around at the piles of trash, at a nearby dumpster somewhat redundantly situated right next to one. "Isn't this where Old Man McGucket lived?"

"McGucket? That fool…" A familiar voice echoed from somewhere in the dump, and Mabel jumped. There was nobody around she could see.

"That's funny." Mabel grinned at the dog, which seemed to have frozen in place. "Haha, did you say that?"

"Yes, in fact." The dog replied, to her amazement. Then it transformed into the shapeshifter, much like her amazement transformed to cold-blooded fear. "And you've just followed me to a place where nobody can hear you scream, you naïve child!"

"Oh no!" Mabel then stopped, and pointed at the shapeshifter's still missing arm. "Wait, what happened there?"

The shapeshifter hissed. "Is it not obvious? Thanks to the Pines family, I have had to endure so much suffering!" It stalked closer. "The author locked me up in an iron cage far below ground for almost my entire life! Then you come along, and you stab me with an axe and you trap me in a cryostatic chamber!"

"You attacked us first!" Mabel answered back, but the shapeshifter would have none of it. With a roar it lunged forwards and gripped her shoulder so tight she thought it might break.

"You and your family forced my arm into a single form!" It screeched. "My power to assimilate, compromised! I had no other choice but to remove it, thanks to _you_!" The shapeshifter shifted into a monster with a huge mouth, filled with thousands of teeth. " _And I'll make all of you pay_!"

Just as it finished, however, something flew from the piles of trash into the shapeshifter's massive maw. It stumbled back, hacking and coughing before eventually spitting out a slimy can of tuna.

"Ewww, gross." Mabel shuddered. The shapeshifter shifted back into its true form and eyed the Board the girl was holding.

"That ghost." It growled, and leapt towards her. "Give me that Board!"

Mabel jumped to the side, but before it could reach her it was slammed by a massive wave of trash. The shapeshifter landed headfirst in the dumpster.

"Woohoo, Dipper!" Mabel's excitement only grew as she saw a transluscent, pale blue version of Dipper materialize in front of her. "Wow, you can do that? That's awesome!"

The shapeshifter popped its head out of the dumpster. "Why must you always interfere, you-" Before it could continue Dipper raised a hand, and then brought it down. The lid of the dumpster crashed on the shapeshifter's head.

"Haha, you showed him!" Mabel laughed as the shapeshifter continued to struggle from underneath the dumpster. "Let's go back now. I'm sure everyone's wondering where we went, bro bro!"

Dipper, his hand still raised in front of him, started to walk towards the dumpster.

"Where're you going?" Mabel raised an eyebrow. "I don't think he's gonna bother us anymore."

Dipper reached the dumpster and phased into it. After a second the shapeshifter's banging on the lid and shouts of vengeance turned into screams and cries of surrender. The dumpster began to shake violently.

Mabel took a step back, hand over her mouth. She watched in horrified silence as the screaming died off, and the shaking slowed. The bottom of the dumpster began to leak a whitish substance.

There was total silence.

After an eternity, the ghostly form of her brother phased back out of the dumpster. She saw his eyes were completely devoid of pupils, and she watched him smile and wave at her, one hand in his pocket. So normal, so much like Dipper used to do.

But after what he'd just done… Mabel dropped the Board. She backed away.

And she ran.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey, dude!" Soos waved as he saw Mabel dashing up the street towards them. "Where've you been?"

Mabel skidded to a halt in front of them. Her face was pale, her hands were trembling. She felt absolutely sick.

Stan took notice. "Whoa, kid. What happened to you?"

"Where's the Board?" Stanford frowned.

She opened her mouth, but the words dried up in her throat. He killed someone. Her brother killed someone. Where could she even start?

"Hey," Her Grunkle Stan turned to the others. "I think we should head back. What do you think, pumpkin?"

Mabel nodded vigorously. She found her voice: "Yeah."

"Okay, then." The old man slung an arm around Soos. "Why don't you drive, Soos? My legs hurt from all this walking around."

"Sure, Mr Pines!"

Stanford stayed a second longer. "Was it the shapeshifter?"

Mabel shook her head. This had nothing to do with that particular monster.

"Come on, Poindexter!" Stan shouted from the car, and reluctantly Ford turned away.

Mabel followed, quickly. She didn't want to be here anymore.

The car ride back was hell. Mabel sat rigid and unsmiling in her seat, and the others couldn't help but take notice. They tried and failed to hide it, groping around for little nuggets of conversation with long awkward pauses in between.

"Oh, hey, dude." Soos reached in his pocket and drew out a crumpled little square of paper. "I took a picture of us out hunting for the shapeshifter today. You wanna put it in your scrapbook so we can remember it forever?"

Remember this day forever? Remember her brother with that hand out in front of him, walking towards the dumpster? Remember the stench of trash and the screams of pain and the drips of white and and his face, his face smiling at her like there was nothing wrong, like he hadn't just done that? "No!"

The car fell silent, and Mabel blinked, coming back to reality. "I mean, no thank you?"

"Oh, that's fair." Grunkle Stan quickly swiped the photo from Soos. "I think my eyes were closed during this one anyway."

"Mr Pines? Your eyes weren't-"

"Can it, Soos!"

Another gap in conversation. Stan fixed his glasses, turned in his seat and gave a little smile at Mabel. She'd never been one who needed to fake happiness before, but that smile she returned felt very forced. It probably looked forced too, judging by the way her Grunkle's own grin faded and he turned back to the front, twiddling his thumbs in a very pensive manner.

Stanford cleared his throat. "Well, even if we didn't catch the shapeshifter today, there's still plenty of places he could be hiding at. We can have quite the adventure in the woods tomorrow!" The old man looked to Mabel. "How does that sound?"

"Oh, yeah." Mabel looked out the window as they were pulling up to the Mystery Shack. "Quite, uh, the adventure tomorrow!"

They might have an adventure, but they'd never find the shapeshifter.

The car rolled to a halt. Soos jumped out first, wiping his forehead. "Phew. I'm, uh, gonna go inside."

Stanford followed. Mabel slowly got out of the car and began to head towards the Mystery Shack before she heard Grunkle Stan call her from behind.

"Hey, kid!" Stan gave a little smile and kneeled down as as she walked over to him. He placed two gentle hands on her arms, as if he was about to pull her into a hug.

"Hi, Grunkle Stan." Mabel tried again to summon a smile, but that was just not happening.

"It's okay." Grunkle Stan took one hand away to tap his glasses. "Your old Grunkle can tell when something's up, you know?"

Mabel sighed, all pretenses of happiness falling away. "I know."

"You remember what I said to you at the beginning of the summer?" Grunkle Stan asked. "When I said you could talk to me about anything? Well, it looks like you need an ear right now."

Mabel drew her hands into her sleeves. "Well…"

Then she hesitated, looking at her Grunkle. He gave her an encouraging smile. "Whatever you say, I'll understand." The old man blinked. "Probably."

But where would she even begin? And at the end, what would he do? Probably go and tell Ford; and that was perfectly reasonable, given what had happened.

Mabel had no doubts what _he'd_ do if he knew what Dipper did. She'd loose him for good.

So she took a deep breath, and backed out of her Grunkle's reach. "I'm okay, Grunkle Stan. And so is Dipper!" Her cheeks were already reddening; she was a terrible liar and both of them knew it.

"Are you sure, pumpkin?"

"Yes! Leave me alone!" Mabel blurted out, and ran for the Mystery Shack before she could catch the surprised and hurt expression on her Grunkle's face.

"Oh, uh, okay, kid! I'll say goodnight, later…" Stan trailed off and got back to his feet with a grunt of pain. "Ow, ow, everything hurts."

Meanwhile Mabel had dashed to her room and shut the door, sliding down against the frame and putting her head in her hands. She really hadn't meant to shout at her Grunkle; she needed to calm down.

Maybe she should have an early night. Yeah, sleeping away the events of today would make her feel a lot better in the morning… right?

Mabel wiped her eyes and stood up, crossing her warm pink carpet over to her bed. But as she was approaching something caught her eye: it was wooden and rectangular, with a cursive alphabet engraved on the top and a small triangle with a hole punched through it resting on the surface, resting on the foot of her bed.

The girl stopped and stared. She'd left it at the dump; it was not meant to be there. The only possible explanation for its presence was… Dipper.

As if the ghost had read her thoughts, the triangle began to move.

MABEL ARE YOU SCARED OF ME

Mabel blinked. "What?"

YOU RAN AWAY FROM ME

It paused, then continued: ARE YOU SCARED OF ME

"Y-yes!" Mabel backed away. "I don't want to talk to you anymore! Leave me alone!"

She made for the door, but when she tried to open it, it didn't budge. Panicking, Mabel banged on the door. "Let me out! Somebody, help!" Mabel looked behind her to see the triangle moving, and whipped her head around to hit the door one more time. "Dipper, I don't want to talk to you! Let me _out_!"

The room began to shake, and without warning her dresser was flung violently into the wall. Mabel flinched, then timidly tiptoed over to her desk. She tore out a page of her scrapbook and went to sit by the Ouija Board.

Dipper began.

YOURE SCARED OF ME BECAUSE OF FORD

Mabel begged to differ, but words failed her. She could only sit and write out the letters as the ghost continued.

I ONLY WANT TO BE BY YOUR SIDE FOREVER. ITS THE REASON I STAYED

The triangle was moving so fast it was hard to keep up, but Mabel scribbled every letter down like her life depended on it.

LOVE FOR YOU IS THE ONLY THING I FEEL. ILL KILL ANYONE WHO GETS IN THE WAY OF THAT

A shudder ran down Mabel's spine. "What? Dipper wouldn't do that…"

I AM DIPPER PINES

"N-no, you're not!" Mabel picked up the Ouija Board with shaking hands. "Dipper would never kill anyone! You're not Dipper!"

I AM DIPPER PINES

Mabel clenched the Board. "Stop saying that! You're… evil! You're not my brother!"

I LOVE YOU

" _Stop it_!" Mabel squeezed her eyes tight, and there was a snap. She opened her eyes, breathing heavily, and saw two splintered pieces of the Ouija Board in her hand. Her knee had a red mark on it.

The room was silent. Mabel breathed a sigh of relief. She felt a laugh rise up in her throat. "I… did that…?"

But then the room started shaking again. The lights began to flicker, and there was a low roar of " _Maaaaabeeeel_ …!"

Quickly, Mabel ran to the door. It was still locked, and nothing seemed to happen when she shouted and kicked at it. She was trapped.

" _Maaabeeel_..." Mabel felt an icy hand on her shoulder, and she turned to see that bluish outline of her brother again, smiling at her with those dead eyes, touching her with that bloodied hand. She screamed and ran to her bed, hands over her ears, sobbing in terror.

She could still hear the moans of the ghost calling her name, the howl of wind, the unsettling screeches and scratches that continued on for an eternity. And all she could do was lie there, helpless-

And something else touched her shoulder. Mabel screamed again, swatted it away and pushed herself up against the wall, looking into the face of…

Grunkle Stan. He looked very pale. "Mabel, are you okay?"

"It was just a dream?" Mabel looked around, and that's when it became very apparent that the recent events were all too real. Her room was trashed; the furniture was in pieces, hurled against the damaged and blackened walls. Her pink carpet was burned into ragged pieces of cloth, and everywhere she looked was roughly carved, capital letters, glowing red and spelling: 'MABEL'.

"That was no dream, kid." Grunkle Stan went over and picked up Mabel's scrapbook, lying mostly untouched underneath the splintered remains of her desk. Then he reached for his great niece's hand and started leading her towards the open door. "You and Stanford and me need to talk."


	10. Chapter 10

Mabel let out a little squeak as a light bulb exploded on their way to the gift shop. "Grunkle Stan, be careful!"

"What, is the kid tryna kill me or something?"

"Yes!"

"Hah!" Stanley turned the corner into the shop. "Fat chance. He'll be lucky if he even puts a- DUCK!"

The two crouched just in time to avoid a cash register flying like a bullet at their faces. Stan watched incredulously as money exploded out of the register and caught fire, burning up into little piles of ash right in front of his eyes.

"Why, that little…"

"Grunkle Stan, come on!" Mabel tugged at his sleeve, and with one last dirty look the old man hurried to the broken snack vendor. He shoved it aside and the two went in.

Stan waved at the gift shop outside, which was beginning to swirl into a tempest. "Haha, sucker!"

"What are you doing? We need to go!"

"No worries, kid." Stan crossed his arms. "Poindexter rigged a nice anti-spook barrier around his lab. Where we're going, that ghost can't follow-" An 8-ball came flying from the other side of the barrier, smacking the old man in the face. He stumbled back and placed two hands over his left eye, cursing.

"Grunkle Stan!"

Stan removed his hand, looking at the broken glass shards falling off his glasses. The skin around his eye was red and swelling; it was sure to leave a real shiny bruise later. "But I guess he can aim. Come on, Mabel!"

The two fled down the stairs, out of sight of the raging ghost. Stan plugged in the elevator numbers and the two were off to the third floor.

"Haha," Stan chuckled. "Ow, ow, my eye. But that was quite an adventure, eh?"

"Yeah…" Mabel looked down. "Thanks for saving me, Grunkle Stan. I'm sorry for shouting at you earlier."

The old man put an arm around his great niece. "Ahh, don't bad about it, kid. Everybody says stuff they don't mean when they're stressed, and I'm pretty sure you've had a more stressful day than you're letting on."

Mabel gave a small, genuine smile. "Yeah. Thanks, again." She looked up. "This time, no more hiding things. I'll tell you everything."

"Now that's the Mabel I know." Stan ruffled her hair. "It feels like we're having a reverse conversation, with you telling me you'll be honest, haha! Is that irony? I can never tell if something's irony."

"What's irony?" At that moment the elevator doors opened to reveal Stanford.

"You two made it!" Ford smiled with relief, then stopped and pointed. "What happened to your eye, Stanley?"

Stan covered it, wincing a little. "Spook's got a better aim than Dipper ever did."

"Anyway, come in, come in!" Stanford led them into the lab, where they saw Soos sleeping on the floor. Standing on the top of the desk at the far end was a small framed picture, which Mabel couldn't quite make out in the dim lighting. "We all came down here when we felt the shaking. I had a feeling it was all going to go south tonight, but this is off the charts!" He pointed to the security cameras; most of them were busted and showing a black screen, and the few that were still handing on showed mass devastation of the Mystery Shack. "It's like nothing I've ever seen before; a category 11, and a furious one at that!"

"What do we do?" Mabel's eyes widened. "Do we need to get rid of him?"

Ford sighed. "You're not going to like this, Mabel, but yes. That ghost is far more dangerous than I predicted; it almost seems… murderous in its intent!"

Mabel sighed. "That's because… he is."

"Mabel." Stanford put a hand on Mabel's shoulder. "I need you to tell me everything that happened today. The more we know about this ghost's experiences and powers, the easier we can lay it to rest."

"Okay, I will." Mabel rubbed the back of her neck. "It all started to go stupid around the time this three legged dog led me to the dump."

"What?" Stanley raised his good eyebrow, earning a loud shush from Ford.

"But he was actually the shapeshifter!" Mabel quickly added. "And he started talking about being locked away all his life and-"

"Hey, that was for his own protection!" Ford butted in, and Stanley shushed him back. "Sorry, continue."

"Well anyway he tried to attack me, but then Dipper just came in and threw him in this dumpster!" The girl wrung her hands, tensing up as she recalled the next part. "And I thought it was over… but Dipper just kept attacking, and attacking – he was completely out of control, and… really scary! I didn't know what to do, so I just ran. I just ran back to you guys!" She looked down at the ground, her lip quivering. "I just… kept seeing him, Dipper, and the shapeshifter… it was awful."

Stan placed a hand on her shoulder. "Sheesh, kid. No wonder you were all worked up on the ride home."

Mabel put her hand over Stan's, continuing: "And when I got back to my bedroom… Dipper was all in my face about leaving him – because I left the Board back at the dump – and things got all crazy and he started saying how he only wants to be with me and he'll kill anyone who gets between us." She looked up at Ford, who had a heavy frown on her face. "And that's it. I'm really sorry for keeping it a secret."

"Hmm…" Ford stroked his chin. "While this ghost certainly would have been easier to exorcise earlier-"

"Stanford!" Grunkle Stan hissed.

"-it's not too late to do the job now." The scientist reached into his belt and pulled out a white cylindrical object. "This should do the trick."

Mabel raised an eyebrow. "A soup thermos?"

No, this is a highly scientific piece of technology designed to trap ghosts." Stanford unscrewed the top. "When aimed at the ghost and activated, it shoots out a photon net that captures the ghost and keeps its energy stored in liquid form inside this container, ready for exorcism."

Grunkle Stan snorted. "So… a ghost thermos?"

Stanford sighed deeply, replacing the top. "Yes, I suppose if you want to grossly simplify it, it's a ghost thermos." He put it back in his pocket. "Now wake Soos and let's get going; I fear there won't be anything left of the Mystery Shack by the time we get up there."

Soos sat up. "Oh, I was awake this entire time. Just, the ground's so comfy!" He pointed at Stanley. "What happened to your face, Mr Pines?"

"Wait!" Mabel stepped in front of her Grunkle Ford. "So… after this, Dipper's gone for good?"

Ford straightened his coat. "Yes, Mabel. You have to understand, it's for the best; you've seen the devastation it can wreak! It's wildly powerful, out of control and there's no feasible way to pacify it."

Mabel thought back to all the times this ghost Dipper didn't exactly act like Dipper. The times he hurt people, the time he killed the shapeshifter. She over at her Grunkle Stan's black eye. "Yeah, I understand."

"Hey, kid." Stan gave a little smile. "That ghost out there, he's not Dipper." The old man walked over to the front of the lab and picked up the framed photo, then returned. "This is Dipper."

He gave the picture to Mabel, who saw it was a photo of her and Dipper – real, alive Dipper – from last summer. He had his arm around his sister, signature pinetree hat on his head, smiling warmly in bright sunny light. She felt that chokey feeling rise up in her throat, and she looked at her Grunkle. "I haven't seen a real photo of him in… forever." She glanced back at it. "He looks so friendly."

"Yeah, exactly!" Stan gently took the photo back. "That little squirt tearing up the Mystery Shack isn't anything like the Dipper we know and love!" He balled a fist. "So let's get up there and show that spook what happens when you mess with the Pines family!"

"Wow, Mr Pines." Soos started clapping slowly. "That was so inspirational!"

"Yeah, yeah." Stan put the photo back on the side. "Enough talking. We've got a ghost to catch!"

Mabel smiled, and followed the group into the elevator. The four got ready to battle a raging spirit as the doors opened, but it was strangely silent.

"Huh." Stan started up the stairs, putting on his brass knuckles. "It was really loud up here earlier."

The four climbed to the top, where they could see the full extent of the ghost's wrath. The gift shop was a hollow shell of a room, souvenirs and bits of wall scattered all around the floor. The roof was patchy and kept leaking dust, and the entire front was completely smashed through.

"Sheesh, this place is a wreck!" Stan looked around, putting his hands on his hips. "I'm gonna have to think of a good lie to pass this off the builders."

Soos came up behind the old man. "How about… a giant wasp?"

"That's a good one! And it'll make those builders work faster, in case the wasp comes back." Stan chuckled and clapped him on the back.

"Hey, everyone!" While they had been talking, Stanford had walked to the end of the Shack and pointed out at the forest. "I know where the ghost went!"

Everyone came running, where they could see what appeared to be a massive force had charged through the forest, felling trees and leaving behind a very visible path. "It seems to be going somewhere, but where, I don't know."

Stan frowned. "Huh, that's in the direction of the town." Next to him, Mabel gasped.

"The town!" She looked at Soos. "Wendy, Pacifica, Old Man McGucket, they're all in trouble!"

"Then we haven't got any time to waste!" Soos ran over to the car and jumped in the front, switching it on and flashing his headlights. "Dudes, get in!"


	11. Chapter 11

"Alright," Stanford spoke as the car came within view of a moonlit town. "The three of you distract the ghost, and I'll… I'll…"

He trailed off, because rising up from the town was a thick smoke, lit eerily blue from beneath. Swirling around the affected area were large chunks of rubble, held up by a mysterious force.

"Hot Belgian waffles," Stan breathed.

"Whoa." Soos let out a nervous laugh, gripping the steering wheel. "You think all the townspeople are okay?" He looked around at the silent group. "Dudes?"

A pair of headlights came rushing up the road, right in front of them. Stanford lunged over and quickly swerved the steering wheel. "Watch out, Soos!"

Mabel gripped her seat belt as the car spun, coming to a stop at the side of the road, safe. The occupants all let out a sigh of relief.

Soos took his hands off the wheel, staring in shock for a moment. Then he opened his door. "You know what, maybe I'll let one of you dudes drive-"

"You need a driver?" A voice came from outside, and Wendy stuck her head in the car. "I was just going to get you guys!"

"Wendy!" Mabel's eyes widened. "You can drive?"

"I'm sixteen, aren't I?" The readheaded girl jumped in the front and started the car as Soos got in the back next to Mabel. She revved the engine. "Boosh. Now while we're getting there, somebody better tell me what's going on."

Mabel looked away. "It's… a long story."

As they drove up to the town, everyone started chipping in parts of the tale of the evil ghost that _definitely wasn't Dipper_. In the meantime Mabel looked out of the window, trying to tune it out; she'd both lived and retold this story, and didn't want to hear it a third time.

"Wow." Wendy said as they finished. "That sounds intense." She looked in her rearview mirror at Mabel. "How're you holding up?"

"Honestly?" She looked up. "Kinda tired. What time is it?"

Stan rubbed the back of his head. "Huh… good question, kid. Like, past midnight or something?"

"It's three o'clock." Stanford replied. He seemed to be about to say something else but when all of a sudden the car began to slow; they'd arrived at the entrance to town.

Wendy left the engine on standby. "We're here."

Mabel looked out of the front, where she could see a glowing blue figure standing at the end of a long, dark street. It didn't seem to have noticed them.

"Alright, everyone!" Stanford gathered everyone around him. "It's impossible to physically fight a ghost, so we'll have to be smart about this. Make a plan." He drew out the thermos. "Take it by surprise."

Before said plan could be formulated, a raspy voice echoed into the car." _You came_." The ghost seemed to have teleported from the end of the street to right in front of the bonnet, staring inside with a creepy smile. Though it had no pupils, Mabel had the distinct feeling it was smiling at her.

Everyone screamed when the ghost reached a hand through the glass. "Wendy, Wendy, drive!" Stan shouted, and the car roared into action. As it drove, the ghost passed right through the middle of the car, going through Soos for a split second.

The man gasped. "Dudes, that didn't feel good. Like eating the toy in your Happy Meal!"

Mabel blinked. "How do you accidentally eat those things?"

"Oh, I did it on purpose. It wasn't a good idea, trust me."

"Can it, Soos!" Stan turned and looked behind them. "We got bigger problems to worry about right now!"

"Yeah, I can't keep driving this thing forever; we have to turn and fight that thing!" Wendy adjusted her back mirror. "What do we do, Mr Pines 2?"

"This situation still could be salvageable." He touched a hand to the door. "We just need the element of surprise. Keep him on your tail, Wendy!"

"Wait, what are you gonna do?" Wendy shot the scientist a panicked glance. "I'm going like, fifty miles an hour! You can't-"

Ford opened the door and jumped out of the car, into the darkness. The four were silent for a moment, completely stunned.

Then Soos whistled. "Wow. I wanna jump out a car."

"Tough luck." Stan placed a hand on his door handle. "Nobody else is jumping out of this car, okay?"

Before anybody could say another word, they were interrupted by a rush of air that knocked the car sideways. Wendy struggled with the wheel and the car did a complete spin before getting back on track.

"What the heck was that?" Mabel gripped her seatbelt, not for the first time this long night.

"Seems our little ghost friend is tired of us running away." She rolled down the window and placed a firm hand on the gearbox. "The feeling's mutual."

Stan paled. "I need another seat belt."

"Take mine, Mr Pines!"

"Here we go!" Wendy quickly shifted the gearbox and spun the wheel, throwing the car into a dramatic turn. Mabel gripped her seat, waiting for the spin to end, but this time it went on, and on, and on, and on, and-

"Hey, ghost!" Mabel identified a glowing blue figure in the middle of the drift circle that Wendy was taunting. "Come and get me!"

There was a rumble and the sound of something breaking, but nothing touched the car. "You missed!"

"Wendy," Soos gripped his stomach. "Not to complain or anything, but is there a less spinny way to avoid the ghost?"

"Good question! I'll figure that out once I figure out how to stop drifting!"

"What?!" At that moment, the car slammed into rubble left by the ghost's previous attack. The car came to a sudden stop, but luckily nobody was hurt.

"Everyone, get out!" Wendy pushed at her door. "Ugh, mine's stuck."

Before they could get out, a force came down on the car and ripped the entire side off, leaving everyone exposed in front of the glowing blue ghost. It clenched a fist and the seatbelts started glowing; Mabel tried to take hers off, but to no avail. She looked around and saw the other three also had something glowing in front of their face, like a ghostly gag device.

" _Mabel_." The ghost paced closer, grinning, extending a hand that she tried her best to shy away from.

"Get away from me!" Mabel swatted the hand away, but it only passed right through and left her with a cold, prickly sensation.

" _Mabel_."

"Get away from-" The girl noticed a figure behind the blue ghost; it was Stanford, wielding the thermos! She gasped, then in a somewhat more forced panic continued. "Ahhh, go away, you… you… buttface!"

The ghost froze. At first Mabel thought it had taken some childish offense to her weak insult, but then she saw it turn its head around and lock eyes with Stanford.

" _Ford_." It rasped in a chilling tone. " _This is your fault_."

The old man's eyes widened, and he quickly tried to fire the thermos. The ghost knocked it out of his hands and onto the pavement.

" _I'll kill you_."

Ford tried to back up, but the ghost swept its hands down and as if some great weight was on his shoulders, he was forced to his knees, then down to his hands. The ghost stood above the man's bowed head, facing away from Mabel.

" _I'll kill you_!" With that the ghost dissolved into a glowing light and phased into Ford. The man let out a cry and collapsed sideways, eyes rolled back, limbs jerking and contorting in unnatural positions.

"Grunkle Ford!" Mabel slipped out of the restraining seatbelt and grabbed the thermos. She aimed it at her possessed Grunkle and fired.

A bright light shot out of the thermos, going through Stanford and knocking the ghost right out of him. With a sigh the old man relaxed, completely unconscious.

The ghost formed back into the figure of Dipper, its face expressing surprise and hurt. It took a step forward but Mabel aimed the thermos at it.

"Don't come any closer, please!" She demanded, trying to keep a tremor out of her voice.

" _You really hate me_." The ghost took another step forward, but Mabel didn't shoot. " _Ford turned you against me_."

"N-no, he didn't! That was you, Dip- I mean, ghost!"

The ghost's shoulders sagged. " _Because I broke your promise_?"

"Promise?" Mabel lowered the thermos. "What promise?"

" _I promised I'd come home with you. I promised I'd be there for you._ " The ghost looked away. " _But I broke it. I left you._ "

"You remember back at that fantasy world, in Weirdmaggedon?" Mabel's eyes widened, but then she shook herself. "But that's not the problem! You just tried to kill my Grunkle!"

" _He was going to take you away from me_!" The ghost rasped in a desperate tone. " _You need me, and I need you! I'm not going to leave you alone again_!"

Mabel felt a choky feeling rise up in her chest.

" _Everyone in this town is trying to take you away from me_." The ghost came even closer. " _Let's run away, Mabel. We can be together again, Mystery Twins, forever!_ "

Mabel looked down, holding the thermos close to her chest. A tear streaked down her face.

" _Please, Mabel. You missed me, but it doesn't have to be like that anymore! I'll take care of you; I love you_."

The ghost then extended its arms, elbows bent, head tilted with a small smile. " _So, what do you say? Awkward sibling hug?_ "

Mabel looked at the gesture with a wide, watery gaze. Then she wiped her eyes, and extended her arms in the same way.

"Awkward sibling hug."

The two embraced; Mabel felt like she was hugging a block of ice.

After a long moment, she turned her head and whispered into the ghost's ear, "I'm sorry."

Then she activated the thermos pressed up to the ghost's back. The ghost cried her name as white light engulfed it, still reaching for her face before being sucked into the container, gone.

Mabel slowly closed the lid, hearing it click. And she stood there, holding it to her chest in mournful silence.

With the disappearance of the ghost, the seatbelts and gags disappeared around Wendy, Soos and Stan in the car. Stan leapt out immediately to check on his brother; Stanford was breathing fine, so the old man got up and looked towards Mabel.

"Kid, you did it!" He punched the air. "I'm so proud of you!"

"Yeah, man, that was awesome!"

"You're the best, dude!"

Mabel didn't turn around.

"Pumpkin?" Stan asked, inching a little closer. "Are you okay?"

Mabel slowly turned around. Her face was blotchy and wet, but she gave a little smile. "Yeah, Grunkle Stan. I'm okay." She took a deep breath. "I guess I just realized… Dipper's, not coming back. He never really did, but that's okay, you know?" She handed the thermos to Stan. "I'll always have my memories of him, and I've got you guys, and that's better than anything that dumb ghost could ever give me." She sighed. "I just wish I'd realized that sooner."

Stan put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't beat yourself up about it. It's really hard to lose somebody," He looked to Ford. "Heck, if I was in your position, I'd probably have done the same thing."

Mabel sniffed, and suddenly wrapped her arms tightly around her Grunkle. "Thanks, Grunkle Stan."

With a smile, Grunkle Stan hugged her just as tightly back. She buried her face into his chest, but then-

"Hey, what's this rectangle thing?"

"Oh, this?" Grunkle Stan brought out Mabel's scrapbook. He flipped past all the torn out pages, turning over a bright, blank new one. "It just seemed like a good idea to bring it."

As they were talking, Stanford groaned and sat up. "Wha-what happened?"

"Mr Pines," Wendy helped the old man to his feet. "You got attacked by that ghost, but Mabel totally saved your butt!"

"Really?"

"Dude, you should have seen it." Soos took out a camera. "I wish I took a picture."

Why don't we take a picture right now?" Mabel grinned. "We got a camera, we got a scrapbook, and we got the best family in the world to take a photo with!"

Ford looked around the environment as Grunkle Stan handed him the thermos. He put it deep in his coat, out of sight and out of mind. "In the rubble of this town?"

"That sounds fine." Stan shrugged. "Just when you get home, tell your parents it was Shotophop or whatever… Now everyone, get in the picture!"


	12. Chapter 12

_"Eenie, meenie, miney, you!" Mabel heard Bill's voice, but she was standing in the middle of the town, pointing at Dipper. Dipper stared back at her, terrified and confused._

 _"You really hate me." Then he suddenly slumped over motionless._

 _Mabel ran to her brother's body, but she didn't seemed to be getting any closer. "Dipper!" She called, tears streaming down her face. "Dipper, wake up!"_

 _There was no response. Mabel felt the ground underneath her fade into a pitch blackness and she was falling, falling..._

 _In the darkness she whispered, "I'm sorry."_

 _Mabel…_

 _Mabel…_

 _Mabel,_

"Mabel," Mabel was suddenly aware of a gentle voice in the room. She still had her eyes closed, but this darkness was different than that of her dream. "Mabel."

Mabel opened her eyes to see her repaired room, morning light shining through onto her pink carpet. She saw her Grunkle Stan sitting at the edge of the bed.

"Morning," The old man gave a small smile. "Everything all right, pumpkin?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Mabel rubbed her eyes, finding they were rather wet. "I just had that dumb nightmare again. Thank you for not using the airhorn!"

Stan held up the little can. "What, this? I didn't have a choice… it messes up my hearing aids!"

Mabel sat up and gave him a light punch. "Haha, right! So what are we doing today? Working at the Mystery Shack?"

"It depends what you wanna do, kiddo." Stan stood up, stroking his chin and grinning. "Wendy was talking to me about these strange tracks she saw three weeks ago, and it turns out some more have cropped up near the Mystery Shack. Poindexter wants to investigate, but he thinks this might be a job for a team."

Mabel's eyes widened. "How big a team?"

"Say… five?" Stan's grin turned mischievous.

"Cool! Who's gonna be the fifth one? Waddles?"

"What? No, you!"

"Really?" The girl jumped out of bed. "On an adventure, like those ones we had last summer?"

Grunkle Stan nodded. "Yep! So, whadda you say, kiddo?"

"Yes. Yes!" Mabel did a little dance in place. "That'd be so awesome, Grunkle Stan!"

The old man began backing out. "Great! So you get dressed and prepare for some adventurer breakfast in the living room!"

"I'll see you there!" Mabel waved as the door closed, and then rushed to her wardrobe. "Oh, this is gonna be awesome! I gotta pick the perfect sweater for this; glow in the dark or pink bunny? Hmm…"

As she was holding the two, something caught her eye. It was the dark blue bag that Dipper used to own; even after a second of looking at it, she felt her spirits plummet. It sat there so innocently, but to her it represented the sixth group member, the one that would never adventure with them again.

And it was all her fault...

Wait, no, that wasn't right!

"That wasn't Dipper." Mabel set the sweaters down and darted over to her desk, on which lay her scrapbook and the framed picture of Dipper and her from down in the lab. She couldn't help but smile, for it was a lovely photo of her brother.

"That wasn't you." She repeated, and set the picture down gently. "You wouldn't have done any of those things; if I could just go back in time, I'd give the ghost up to Grunkle Ford so I'd never remember you like that, ever."

She opened the scrapbook, the pages immediately settling on the large section of ripped out pieces. Mabel sighed. "I wasted so much time with it, though. I was just so excited to have you back, I didn't really think about whether it was actually you or not."

Mabel then flipped the next page, where she looked at all those photos she took with everyone right after they captured the ghost. Everyone looked quite roughened up, but they all had genuine, happy smiles. Mabel could see she was gradually dropping off, and by the last one she was asleep and there was a glimmer of morning light in the sky.

After that there were several pages of rebuilding the Mystery Shack. Mabel saw most of the pictures were around Wendy's house, where they had stayed for the weeks it took to rebuild. Also, there was a photo of Grunkle Stan and Soos with the builders, Waddles with a hardhat on, the little memorial they put up for the shapeshifter in the woods...

In all of them, Mabel had her family. She'd always have a hole in her heart where Dipper used to be, but Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford, Soos, Wendy, they'd always be there for her.

"Kid? Kid!" A shout from the kitchen startled Mabel. "Breakfast is served! You ready for Stancakes?"

"Oh, I'm coming!" Mabel jumped up from her chair. She closed the scrapbook and dashed to the door, right past Dipper's bag.

She was going to have the best summer ever, just like Dipper would've wanted.

* * *

 _Fin._


	13. Extra

"Here's your change, sir." The cashier handed a few coins to Ford. "Have fun on your date!"

Ford blinked. "My… date?"

"All those candles? I just assumed-"

"Oh, yes. A date, of course. Nothing suspicious at all." He hurried away, taking the candles with him.

He started up the car, the candles sitting on the seat next to him as he made his way home. They bumped and rolled with the road, rustling against the plastic bag, a constantly reminding him of the deed that had to be done. It had been put off long enough.

Ford glanced at it, sighed, and turned away. If only they were for a date.

He pulled up to the Mystery Shack, catching sight of Mabel. She was playing with her pig on a porch, and jumped up at the sight of her great uncle. Ford put on a smile and waved.

"Grunkle Ford!" Mabel wrapped his legs in a hug as he got out of the car. Ford awkwardly patted her shoulder. "I made you a sweater! Come upstairs!"

"Not now, I must-"

"What's in that bag?"

"Dinner," He quickly lied. "Don't worry about it."

Mabel let him go, a cheeky smile on her face. "Haha, why would I be worried about dinner? What's my great uncle up to, Waddles?"

"Look, Mabel, I've got to go to my lab." Ford tiptoed around her, careful to keep the bag out of reach. "You'll see me later, I promise."

"Pinky promise?"

"Yes, yes." Ford turned his back, and his fake smile vanished. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

He hurried inside.

"Hey, Poindexter!" Stan waved at him from the cash register. "You got a moment?"

"I'm afraid not, sorry."

"What's the rush?"

Ford showed him the bag of candles. His brother's face darkened with understanding. "I see. Took you long enough."

"It wasn't easy to gather all the supplies… or the courage, for that matter."

"Well, get it over with as quick as you can. And be careful!"

"I will, Stan." Ford punched in the code and opened the vending machine. He stepped inside and swung the door shut, plunging himself into darkness. He walked downstairs, memory guiding his steps whilst his eyes adjusted to the dim blue lights along the path. He reached the elevator and punched in the code.

Level two, Stanford had decided. His private study should be more than equipped for the task of exorcising a ghost. This ghost, however…

He shook his head. This ghost isn't special, he reminded himself. That kind of thinking is dangerous; it leads to fatal mistakes. It's not human. It's not Dipper.

 _It's not Dipper_.

The doors opened, and Ford walked over to the chalk circle, already drawn with the thermos in the middle. He set up the candles, lit all but one, and placed his nephew's old pine tree hat in front. He stepped back, feeling his heart pound in his chest, and lit one last match.

He hesitated.

"Get a hold of yourself, Stanford," He quietly berated himself. "It's not Dipper."

He held the match up to the candle; the string took the flame, and the tip blackened. For a moment all was still, but then the thermos began to tremble. Any second, and it would release-

 _Boom!_ The thermos shattered, sending pieces of machinery flying out from the epicenter. Stanford felt a rush of fear – if it had knocked over any of the candles, it would be almost impossible to recapture the ghost- but calmed when he saw it was still safely contained.

Safely contained, but not for lack of effort. The instant the ghost was out of the container it raged against the barrier, a blinding, screaming flurry of activity directed at Ford; when he moved to the right to retrieve some notes, it followed with its blows.

Stanford took one moment to look upon the formless white cloud before beginning the banishment chants. It wasn't Dipper… though at that moment he hardly needed the reminder. "Ahem, Dipper Pines, I lay your spirit to-"

"Wait!" The desperate, human call rang in Ford's ears, and he faltered. That was a mistake; he had to get this over with quickly, he had to keep up the chant, he had to-

But then the formless white cloud condensed into the shape of a boy, a boy with brown hair and a blue hat and an orange shirt and feet touching the ground and pupils and only the faintest white glow, and Ford's words stuck in his throat.

"Don't kill me." He – I mean, it said, without a hint of ghostly echo. "Please, Great Uncle Ford."

Ford took a step back. "You're so… real. How are you doing that?"

"Please," Dipper repeated, pressing two hands against the barrier. "I need Mabel."

"She's upstairs-"

" _I need her!_ "

The sudden outburst brought Ford back to reality. "No. No! Leave Mabel out of this, ghost."

"But she needs me!"

Ford thought back to his niece, happily playing with her pig on the porch. "She doesn't need you, my boy. She'll always love you, but she doesn't need you."

"Doesn't need me?" He looked confused, hurt. "But… I need her."

There was silence, and Ford knew he should take this chance to banish the ghost. But that expression… he couldn't bring himself to start the chant. So he sighed, swallowed the feeling that he was making a huge mistake, and kneeled down to the ghost's level.

"Look, uh… can I just, can I do something for you, or say something that'll ease your mind?"

Dipper nodded immediately. "Bring me Mabel."

"Let me clarify. Something not to do with Mabel."

The ghost stayed silent, staring at him for an uncomfortable amount of time.

"Maybe you want to… ask me about my time in the portal? I know you were always curious about that." Ford drew out a pair of dice, the tiniest smile dancing on his face. "Or one last game of Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons, like old times? With pen and paper, shield and sword…?"

"I want Mabel." The ghost said, face completely devoid of emotion. "Bring me Mabel."

Ford felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He put away the dice, his smile turning wry. "I suppose I deserved that. I told myself not to think you were special, but I guess I couldn't help myself."

"Where is Mabel?"

"Dipper Pines, I lay your spirit to rest."

"What?" The ghost banged against the barrier. "No! _Wait!_ "

"I command you to stop haunting this house."

" _You're making a mistake! Mabel needs me!"_

Ford stood up, still chanting. "Leave this mortal plane and never return."

" _Murder_!" The ghost shrieked, now surrounded by a white light. " _Murder! Murder!_ "

"Goodbye."

The ghost kept screaming and struggling as its form brightened, causing Ford to plug his ears and look away. After what seemed like an eternity, it all faded away, into silence. After a moment, he opened his eyes and surveyed the room.

The chalk circle was empty. The candles had burnt out. His study was covered in pieces of the destroyed thermos. The deed was done.

"Oh, my god." Ford could feel his body trembling, his heart racing. He quickly backed out of the room, pressed for the elevator, and dashed inside as soon as the doors opened.

That was worse than he had ever imagined it would be. He shouldn't have listened to the ghost at all; he should have simply pushed through its protests and banished it. But he didn't.

"Why?" Ford asked the empty elevator. "It was understandable when Mabel thought she could reason with it, but I should've known better."

He thought back to the moment Dipper died, watching helplessly from a cage as Bill let his nephew's crumpled body fall to the ground. They'd only had such a short time to get to know each other, but in that time they'd become fast friends. Dipper understood him on a level Mabel, Fiddleford, even his own brother Stanley could never reach. Plus, the boy was a whiz at Dungeons, Dungeons & More Dungeons.

Ford missed that connection more than he wanted to admit. He wanted his apprentice back, however briefly, however falsely. With that in mind, it was no surprise the exorcism was such a disaster.

The elevator doors opened, then, and Ford reluctantly started upstairs. He was in no mood to talk to anyone; maybe he could sneak past his brother and-"

"Stanford?" His brother and his niece were standing in the stairway. Nevermind, then. "Are you alright? We heard screaming!"

Ford nodded. "Everything is fine."

"So…" Mabel started. "Is it…?"

"Yes. It's over."

"Jeez, Stanford," His brother put a hand on his shoulder, gently leading him forwards. "You need a chair or something? You look like you're about to pass out."

"I'm not going to faint."

"That's what everyone says before their face hits the floor. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience."

"I'll catch you, Great Uncle Ford!"

"Really, I'm fine! But, maybe just a glass of water-"

Mabel was off before he could even finish his sentence. "One glass of water coming right up! I'll bring that sweater I made for you, too!"

"Here you go." Stan gently sat him in a chair. "Don't get used to this, Poindexter."

Ford grinned. "Don't worry, Stanley. I won't."

* * *

 **This was an ending I had in mind. It was close enough to a guest's request that I decided to post it.**


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